Jeffrey Lima

Polarization of Light
May 20, 2014







Partners: Walter Villatoro
Steven Meza
Conclusion
The Polarization of Light lab examined the transmission of light through two polarizing
filters as a function of the angle between their axes and compared it to Malus's law. The purpose
of the lab was to observe the change in light intensity of light passing through crossed polarizing
filters. The filters can be rotated so that the intensity of light increases or decreases depending on
the angle that the axis of one filter makes with the other. When the polarized lenses are
perpendicular to each other, theoretically, no light should pass, but there are no perfect polarizing
filters so some light is emitted. When the polarized axes are parallel to each other, the maximum
possible light passes through.
First, the light source, polarizing filters, and light sensor were placed so light
passed through the filters and then into the sensor. Only the rotatable filter will move to change
the transmission, the square filter in place, the light source, and the sensor must not move. There,
we then measured the intensity of light from a light bulb passing through a pair of filters using a light
sensor connected to a LabQuest and plotted an intensity vs. angle graph. One of the filters was rotated
from 0 to 360 degrees by 5 degrees each time to analyze the change in intensity of the light that passed
through the filters. At 0 degrees the axis of the filters were parallel and maximum intensity of light
passed through. As the filter was rotated, the intensity of the light decreased and increased a couple of
times as seen on the graph. The intensity decreased from 0 to 90 degrees where it reached its lowest
intensity and increased from 90 to 180 degrees where it reached its highest intensity. From 180 to 270
degrees it also decreased to its lowest and from 270 to 360 degrees it once again increased. These
increases and decreases made a graph of a cosine function which agrees with Maluss proposition of

. The graph shows that the lowest point at 90 degrees was not the same as the lowest
point at 270 degrees and the highest point at 0, 180, and 360 were also different although the lowest
and highest points should have all been the same. This was most likely due the sources of error involved
in this lab.
After finishing with the procedure with two filters, a third filter with its axis perpendicular to the
first was added and the same procedure was repeated except that in this procedure we did increments
of 15 degrees and started at the lowest intensity by mistake. Similar results were obtained from this
procedure. The intensity increased and decreased but for this part, it increased and decreased more
frequently. Instead of increasing or decreasing every 90 degrees, it increased or decreased every 45
degrees. The intensity vs. angle graph shows 4 increases and 4 decreases through 360 degrees.
Unfortunately the data from the first graph was erased due to a malfunction of LabQuest therefore we
were unable to make any comparisons between the data. But it can be seen that the second graph is
also a cosine function and is similar to the first which agrees with the formula

.

Sources of error:
LabQuest did not completely zero out degrees, it kept fluctuating around zero.
Accidentally moved light bulb from its "zero" position.
Different light entering the polarized filters from other lab group's experiment
Possible damage done to the polarized filters from previous use
Increments of degrees of rotation were estimated
Light source was possibly moved when rotating the polarized filter
Increments of 15 degrees does not give enough points to plot therefore graph is not a
smooth cosine squared graph
Parallax when labeling degrees on the analyzer filter